Heating/lighting question

[Jusanothermornin]

Hello everyone. I recently purchased a 3-4 month old male veiled. I have a question regarding it's heating. At the moment I'm only using a u.v. 5.0 light. The reason I have not provided a basking light is because I'm worried about overheating. It is currently summer in Southern California and where I live temperatures have been in the 90's for a few weeks now. Is this okay or should I still provide a basking light of low wattage? I just don't want it to get uncomfortably hot in the chams enclosure.

Any suggestions?

 

[Lpsouth1978]

The only way to truly know is to measure his basking temps with a digital thermometer with a probe or a temp gun. His basking spot should be around 90, but he needs a temperature gradient so he can cool off if he gets too warm. If your ambient temperatures in the room are regularly above 80 you need to cool the room down somehow, ideally down to 70 with a basking temp of 90. Otherwise, no basking bulb is needed with temps in the 90's.

 

[Jusanothermornin]

I have measured the temperature in the enclosure. The temp directly under the u.v. measures at 90f. The temperature at the bottom of the enclosure measures at 80f which is the ambient temp in the room. Are these temps suitable? Unless I leave the a/c on all day, I cannot make the room cooler. No need for basking light in these temps correct?

 

[xephyr17]

Basking light is a bad idea if it's already that hot... I've tried using fans to at least circulate the air in the room and that cooled it down a bit here in Oregon on the really hot days (unless I'm using A/C, which I try to avoid). You could try that to make it more of a gradient of heat to cool for him.

 

[crazychamzoo]

Is he in a fully screened enclosure? If so you can run a fan facing away from the enclosure to draw air through the cage, and this helps create air circulation in the room. I live in Texas so we know hot, something else that has worked for us is to add a ton of foliage at the bottom of the enclosure, and mist a few extra times a day, this helped create a better temperature gradient in the enclosures and helped keep the humidity in check.

 

[Jusanothermornin]

I knew I couldn't be the only one dealing with hot weather. Yes, he is in a fully screened enclosure. I just went out and bought some foliage to add at the bottom. Hopefully this works in creating a better gradient. If not, I will try your fan suggestion as well. How hot does it get where you live in Texas? Do you use a basking light when it gets real hot or just a UVB?

 

[crazychamzoo]

It's been a pretty mellow summer this year only in the upper 90's durning the day. We are still using basking lights and we use regular house light bulbs for our basking lights ranging from 40-75 watts. We adjust the distance of the lights from the enclosures along with the wattage to maintain 90-95 max basking temp, some of the enclosures in the high 80's, really just depends on the Cham, we carefully monitor the Chams for signs of overheating, and really just let the individual Chams let us know where they are comfortable. Our veiled chams seem to be happier with a bask site in the mid 90's, and our Panthers for the most part happier at 87-90 range. With all our enclosures we look for a low cool area of around 76-78 degrees. And a night drop to around 72 on the thermostat.

 

[Jusanothermornin]

What are some signs of overheating?
After hours of moving my room around I was finally able to achieve a basking spot of approximately 85-90 degrees. My cham immediately went over to this spot to bask. Will the temperature of this spot increase to uncomfortable levels as the day gets hotter? How could I control this? I have to be at work :/ here's an updated pic of my enclosure with the extra foliage near the bottom

 

[Ocelot357]

keep him outside, the temps are perfect out here right now. Just put his cage out in area where he will get good sun. Also make sure he has shade if he needs it. He will thank you for it. ive been keeping my new nosy be out 24/7 he loves it.

As for you being at work when you have it i doors , if you have a big enough cage you should put the lamp on one side so if he gets too hot he can move away from it, basically the cage needs a cool side and a basking side

 

[Jusanothermornin]

I would love to keep him outside but I have cats and they would hang around his cage and stress him out. Here is a pic of the lighting fixtures. Like have the basking light in one corner and the UVB running diagonally. Is this a good set-up?

 

[Ocelot357]

I would love to keep him outside but I have cats and they would hang around his cage and stress him out. Here is a pic of the lighting fixtures. Like have the basking light in one corner and the UVB running diagonally. Is this a good set-up?

yea that should b ok, face the uVB lamp opposite of the heat lamp.

 

[Jusanothermornin]

Got it, thanks. Thank you for your output everyone! Highly appreciated!